trtstorg of flfcagnetism. 21 



of a statue being suspended in like manner 

 in the temple of Serapis, Alexandria. 



It is claimed that the Chinese knew of and 

 used the magnetic needle in the earliest times 

 and that travelers by land employed this 

 needle suspended by a string to guide them in 

 their journeys across the country a thousand 

 years before Christ. Notwithstanding the 

 claims of the Chinese and Arabians to the dis- 

 covery of the use of the magnetic needle, 

 modern authors question whether the ancients 

 were familiar with any artificial construction 

 of a magnetic needle, however much they may 

 have studied and used the loadstones. No 

 doubt the loadstone in its natural state was 

 used by mariners to steer their ships by, long 

 before its artificial counterpart was invented. 

 In a history of the discovery of Iceland, by Are 

 Frode, wLo was born in 1068, it is stated that 

 a mariner by name of Folke Gadenhalen sailed 

 from Norway in search of Iceland in the year 

 868, and that he carried with him three ravens 

 as guides, for he says, " in those times seamen 

 had no loadstone in the northern countries." 

 The magnetic needle as applied to the mari- 

 ner's compass was known in the eleventh cen- 

 tury, as proved by various authors. In an old 

 h poem, tlio manuscript of which still 

 . lli- iimrim-r's rumpii is clearly men- 

 1. Tin- Miit li..r was Guyot, of Provence, 

 who was alive in 1181. 



